The top ten awardees in this year's edition of the “Puls Medycyny” competition were: Prof. Krzysztof Ozierański, Jarosław Biliński, MD, PhD, Monika Gawałko, MD, PhD, and Mateusz Zawadka, MD, PhD. They were recognized for changing Polish medicine for the better with their knowledge, commitment and passion.
The jury evaluated the candidates - scientists under 40 years of age for: scientific achievements, involvement in public space, and prospects for further development as well as chances for influence in Polish medicine and health care in the coming years. The results were published on June 27. Who are the MUW scientists who were among the winners of the Supertalents in Medicine 2025 competition?
- 2nd place: Prof. Krzysztof Ozierański is a cardiology specialist in the 1st Department of Cardiology UCC MUW, President-elect of the Club 30 of the Polish Society of Cardiology, Polish Ambassador to the European Heart Failure Association (ESC HFA Young, 2023-2025).
Since the beginning of his clinical and scientific work, he has focused his interests on cardiomyopathies and myocarditis, which was the basis of his doctoral thesis (“Therapy of heart failure in Poland on the basis of international observational registers”) and habilitation dissertation (“Prevalence, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of patients with myocarditis”).
He treats patients with cardiomyopathies under drug programs (amyloidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Fabry disease) in the Cardiomyopathy Clinic, he is on duty in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and performs electrotherapy procedures (implantation of pacemakers, cardioverter-defibrillators, removal of electrodes, etc.) and cardiac biopsy. He has developed a procedure for heart biopsy by using a guided electroanatomical system, as well as heart biopsy under the guidance of transesophageal echocardiography.
In 2019, he started the Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Diagnosis and Therapy Program, which includes non-invasive diagnosis [genetic testing, echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), cardiac perfusion scintigraphy (SPECT)] and invasive diagnosis (myocardial biopsy) of inflammatory cardiomyopathy.
- 4th place: Jaroslaw Bilinski, MD, PhD, is a hematology specialist and assistant professor at the Department of Hematology, Transplantation and Internal Medicine UCC MUW. He is the originator, founder, co-owner and chairman of the board of the Human Biome Institute, a spin-out biotechnology company of the Medical University of Warsaw that commercializes scientific research results. The company has created Poland's first professional gut microbiota bank and is developing an artificial intelligence-based platform for the discovery and creation of Next Generation Biotherapeutics - microbiome-based drugs, including the world's first biosynthetic gut microbiome.
His scientific work focuses on hematology, immuno-oncology and pioneering research on the gut microbiota as a key modulator of immunity. Among his most important achievements is the implementation of gut microbiota transplantation to combat the global threat of antibiotic resistance. This includes developing and conducting the world's first prospective clinical trial that proved the effectiveness of gut microbiota transplantation (FMT) in eliminating so-called superbugs, which are antibiotic-resistant pathogens, from the bodies of hematooncology patients. He is also credited with developing an innovative treatment for a deadly complication of bone marrow transplantation, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) - creating and implementing one of the world's first protocols for treating the disease with gut microbiota transplantation.
- 6th place: Monika Gawałko, MD, PhD, is a clinician as well as research and teaching assistant in the 1st Department of Cardiology UCC MUW. She conducts translational and clinical research on cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia risk factors.
Member of the Working Group Executive Board and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) communications coordinator for e-cardiology, member of the ESC editorial team for Social Media, honorary member of the European Heart Rhythm Association. She served as the Polish ESC Young Ambassador for Preventive Cardiology from 2022 to 2024.
She collaborates clinically and scientifically with many foreign centers: Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders, University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital (Australia), Department of Cardiology, Maastricht University Medical Centre (the Netherlands), Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Institute of Pharmacology, University Duisburg-Essen (Germany). She has co-authored more than 100 publications indexed in Pubmed with a total citation index (IF) of more than 500.
- 8th place: Mateusz Zawadka, MD, PhD, DESAIC, EDAIC, is a specialist in anesthesiology and intensive care, assistant professor in the 2nd Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care UCC MUW. He serves as chairman of the Ultrasonography and Echocardiography Section of the Polish Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care. He has been an examiner for the European Diploma of Specialization in Intensive Care (EDAIC) since 2024. He holds responsible positions in international organizations that are leaders in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).
Co-author of the meta-analysis “Real-Time Ultrasound Guidance as Compared With Landmark Technique for Subclavian Central Venous Cannulation,” published in the journal Critical Care Medicine, which was used, among other things, in the development of the American Society of Echocardiography's guidelines for central venous cannulation.
His current research interests focus on point-of-care ultrasonography and medical education. Recent areas of research work include: optimizing the hemodynamic management of patients with dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) in intensive care units, improving safety with central access in ICU patients, and the use of transcranial ultrasonography in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (a collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond).